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April was a hectic month for me. I had gallbladder removal surgery fairly early on in the month. As much as I would have liked to use my down time to get caught up on my sermon editing, there were more pressing matters that had been requiring my attention to which I committed myself. That said, just this past week, I was finally able to get a bit caught up, and I posted some sermons and Sunday School classes to our SermonAudio page. Feel free to check them out and, if you are a member of SermonAudio, leave us a review. Click here for a selected sermon for your Sunday afternoon listening. Soli Deo Gloria!

Beth Moore has been outed for some time as a false teacher. She has been a very slippery sort of heretic, which has long allowed her to share the stage both with Word of Faith types and with notable charismatics within evangelicalism like John Piper. Perhaps this angel-of-light persona makes her even more dangerous.

She first gained popularity in the 1990’s when her theology was viewed as middle-of-the-road, Bible-based, Baptist teaching, but her teaching has become more mystical and subjective over the years. Beth Moore sometimes refers to her own direct conversations with God in order to establish and validate her teachings, and she emphasizes unity in the church over sound teaching about important doctrinal matters. Moore has partnered with and endorsed Word of Faith false teachers like Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen and Christine Cain, and she is featured prominently on TBN. Read more…

Surely, then, you can imagine my surprise when Thabiti Anyabwile posted his open apology to her yesterday over at The Gospel Coalition. What we are starting to see among the “racial reconciliation” crowd is a desire to “ally” with almost anyone who would affirm them in their narrative on race in America and the church. Thabiti suggests as much about his own apology when he writes: “I’ve watched you valiantly stand with African Americans in our complaints and concern about treatment in the world and sometimes in the church. I’ve been astounded at how the Lord has used you and how much you have courageously risked to stand with us and to join the conversation.”

Doubtless, men must consider the intentions that underlie their commitments to doctrinal positions like complementarianism, and we should allow Scripture to rebuke us for any misogyny, sexism, or chauvinism that may compel us to treat our sisters in the faith as less than human. However, that does not give women the Scriptural authority to go around parading as pastors, and it certainly does not excuse Ms. Moore’s own heresy. What it will do is provide Anyabwile with ammunition to tell “white Evangelicals” that it is now their turn to fall in line and admit their own “privilege” and “sinful attitudes.” The trajectory now is so predictable if you simply have your eyes open.

I have long argued that the bulk of America is comprised of either single-issue voters or those who place most of their emphasis on two or three issues. I don’t believe this to be wrong in any sense. It simply is. Rather than bashing people over the head for being single-issue voters, smart politicians and political parties will widen their campaign platforms to speak with zeal on every issue so that no single-issue voter feels abandoned or marginalized. I did not vote for Trump or Clinton in the last election. I could not bring myself to support either person for the highest office in our land.

I do, however, support the consciences of Christians everywhere who felt a vote for Trump was necessary to hold back the tidal wave of liberalism that has gained speed in our nation over the eight-year reign of the liberal agenda, even if it was obvious that Trump would only slow the leftward momentum of our nation (rather than stop it or reverse it). He might believe that Planned Parenthood “does wonderful things,” but he would not actively campaign for them as would Clinton. Today, I would like to point our readers to an article that challenged me on this issue, over at Reformation21. I don’t fully agree with the voice, but I support it. Below is an excerpt:

Of all of the appalling policies in our nation, many Christians have strong convictions that the most appalling is abortion. Minorities rank high in the ledgers listing those killed by abortion, and these Trump-voting believers care about their neighbors. Abortion’s victims are hidden, not seen (“undocumented). The oppressor is the only one to see their faces. His acts are valorized as “choice” and “services” in our culture, and his grisly work flourishes behind a glossy storefront or in a clinical building.

In The Screwtape Letters preface, C.S Lewis described the modern age and its evils like this:

‘But it [evil] is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.’

Evil does a very good job at looking nice, and, well, clinical. And since it is easy to forget victims when they are hidden, it is easy to marginalize them. To make the systematic killing of millions a secondary policy issue.

And so, by and large, when I speak to my suburban friends, their vote for Trump came down to abortion. And while they disagree with much or most of his rhetoric, they already see his administration enacting pro-life policies which will work for the saving of international lives as well as those of American children of all races. (And, oddly, Trump‘s pro-life policy moves are relatively unheralded and uncelebrated by the some evangelicals.)